Cover Up
by water wolf 100
Summary: We all wonder-why is Nudge so into make-up and fashion? Who can help her get over it? Why our favorite blind pyro of course! Please read and review but pretty please no flames!


Three cheers my second Max Ride one shot! OK now on to the bad news-it's not a Fax. *Dodges thrown items* I'm sorry but I came up with this idea while I was getting ready to go to the movies today. I would have made it a Fax but Max hates make-up and isn't as doubtful about certain things. On the other hand Nudge is and who better to go with as a pairing then the blind birdman himself? It's more of a friendship though. And sorry if the characters seem a little OOC. I'm still pretty new at writing Max Ride.

"Nudge, open the door! Some of us need to use the bathroom too!" Gazzy screamed. Pounding his fist on the door, he continued to yell at Nudge. Though, the mocha skinned girl didn't hear a word he said. She kept staring at her reflection in the mirror. Not in a vain way or anything, quite the opposite. Every time she looked at herself, she found something else wrong with her. Her nose was too big, her eyes were too close together, and she even thought her eyebrows looked weird.

"I'll be out in a little bit. I'm almost done", Nudge called back out. She listened as Gazzy grumbled about how annoying girls were as he walked down the hallway. Standing on her toes, Nudge reached to the top shelf of the medicine cabinet and pulled out a rather large make-up bag. It held all of her cosmetics, from foundation to thirty tubes of lip-gloss to a giant case of eye shadow in every color imaginable.

Nudge gently opened the tube of liquid foundation and began applying it all over her face, blending it in with a gentle brush. As she looked in the mirror, the foundation made some of her various scars almost invisible. Along with any disgusting acne she had. On top of the liquid foundation she put on some bronzing powder which made her skin more sun kissed looking.

With every drop of make-up Nudge put on, the fewer imperfections she saw. Her make-up was her mask, it hid her face and in it, her fears. If she had on her mask, then the others wouldn't be able to see how upset or afraid she was. When things got bad, most of the time all she wanted to do was hide. But she didn't, because Max was counting on her and she couldn't let Max down.

"There, I think that'll do it", Nudge said happily. She took one last look at her face before turning out of the bathroom. Then, she realized there were a lot of things her make-up didn't hide. Like the bruises from her battle last week with the M-Geeks, or a nasty scar running along the top of her eyebrow that she got while she was still at the School. No amount of make-up would make those things go away. The more she looked at her face, the more Nudge realized her make-up did almost nothing for her. "Why do I even bother?" Nudge asked her reflection. "I'll never be a cute as Angel, or as beautiful as Max. So why should I even try to compete with how they look?" Of course, her reflection didn't say anything back. That was good, because she would have considered herself insane if it had answered her. Angered by her own reflection, Nudge sank down to the floor besides the sink.

She buried her face in her arms and let silent tears drip down from her eyes, washing away some of her mask. Nudge had been holding in those tears for a while, but she had never found a good time to let them out. There was simply too much work to do and crying would have taken away from the important work there was to be done. Nudge knew she had to be extra quiet while she cried, or else the others would hear and she would have to explain why she was upset and that would mean explaining how she felt about the way she looked. Not something she wanted to do, it was her problem and the Flock had bigger problems then listening to her babble on about her stupid insecurities.

A slight tap on the door brought Nudge out of her thoughts. "Nudge? Are you OK?" a voice asked. Nudge's head shot up at the voice. Of course, Iggy had super good hearing, he heard her. Iggy knocked on the door again and Nudge trembled on the floor. If her found out she was crying then he might tell the others.

"I-I'm O-OK Iggy", Nudge whispered. He voice shook as she spoke and she hoped and prayed with all her might that Iggy couldn't tell. There was a slight click from the bathroom door lock and it swung open. Iggy was standing there lock pick in hand, looking slightly concerned. He stepped into the bathroom and shut the door behind him.

"I'm blind, not deaf Nudge. Even Max would have been able to tell you voice was breaking. Now what's the matter?" Nudge turned her head away from Iggy as he crossed the slippery linoleum of the bathroom. He gently sat of the ground next to her and Nudge felt his eyes fixed on her. She turned back to him and stared into his pale sightless eyes.

Somehow, Iggy was able to swiftly reach out and grab her hand. His skin felt smooth and cool to the touch, like a piece of shiny metal. "It's really not that big of a deal Iggy. I was just having some issues with my make-up", Nudge quickly lied. Iggy's glare drilled right into Nudge's heart.

"Why?" his question was short and to the point. He wasn't in the mood for long drawn out stories.

"Why what?"

"Why do you bother wearing make-up?" Nudge was surprised by that. No one had ever asked Nudge that before and she didn't know how to respond. She sat there for a minute, pondering. Why did she wear make-up? Deep down she knew the answer was simple; it was to make herself feel prettier. All of the girls in her fashion magazines wore make-up and they were gorgeous. She wasn't naturally beautiful like Max; sadly Nudge didn't have the beautiful flawless skin like Max.

As much as Nudge didn't want to admit it, she wore all that make-up and had all the popular clothes because she didn't feel like she was pretty at all. If the girls in the magazines could look the beautiful with those things, then maybe she could too. That didn't turn out to be the case. "It's because", Nudge started slowly. "I don't like the way I look." She shut her eyes and waited for Iggy to say that she was being a dumb girl and that she should grow up but he didn't say anything.

"If you want one guy's opinion, I think you're beautiful just the way you are. You don't need to change the way you look, not when you look great to begin with", Iggy stated. Nudge stared at him in disbelief. "I know that opinion is coming from a blind guy but still, you're a beautiful girl Nudge. You're exceptionally beautiful on the inside, where it really counts. Everyone has things they don't like about themselves, look at me, I'm freaking blind! But I don't let that stop me from doing what makes me happy. Which includes cooking and blowing up stuff; which are two things blind kids don't normally do.

"So you're saying don't worry as much about how I look, rather, just be me?"

"More or less. Besides, girls who spend too much time on how they look tend to grow up to be really shallow. And trust me; Max will kill you if you end up being shallow." The corners of Nudge's mouth turned up slightly as Iggy's words began to sink in. He was right, maybe outside appearance wasn't as important. After all, Max didn't give a dang about how she looked and she was one of the most beautiful people Nudge knew, not just on the outside but inside as well.

"Thank you, Iggy!" Nudge cried as she threw her arms around her blind friend. He returned the embrace, gently stroking her wavy hair. She whipped the tears from her face and stood up. "All right, I'm going to take all of this stuff off my face. Tell Gazzy I'll be out in a few minutes." Iggy nodded and left the bathroom. As soon as she heard the door shut behind her, Nudge turned on the faucet and began to wash away all her make-up. Each layer that went down the drain was a layer of the mask she had put up to everyone around her.

After some major scrubbing and tons of soap, all the make-up was gone from her face. Nudge then took almost all of her make-up and dumped it in the trash bin. All she left was some eye shadow, mascara and blush for when there was a special occasion. After taking one last look at her natural face Nudge skipped out of the bathroom, shutting off the light behind her. "No Gazzy, you may not have pizza for breakfast. We're not sleeping in caves anymore, it's time you ate some real food", Max scolded from the kitchen. As Nudge walked into the kitchen everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at her.

"What's wrong?" Nudge asked nervously. She glanced at each of her friends. Gazzy and Max were standing jaw dropped, Angel smiled approvingly, Fang looked disinterested as usual and Iggy was looking in her general direction smiling happily.

"Nudge, did you do something new with your make-up? It looks great", Angel said with a huge smile. The other nodded in agreement and Nudge felt a smile come across her own face.

"Thanks, now what was this I heard about pizza?" she asked sitting down at the tiny kitchen table.

"Absolutely not. Iggy, will you please make something of substance for us to eat?" Max pleaded. Iggy smiled and turned to the stove and began cracking eggs. He glance over his shoulder, right at Nudge and gave another huge smile. Nudge was very happy now, her mask was gone and her face felt a thousand times lighter. She beamed at her family as they went about their morning, and she was sure it would be a great day.

*You're a diabolical little pyro aren't you?

Well there's my cute little Niggy moment. No, nothing like this happened to me. I just liked the idea of someone using make-up to hide from what they think are imperfections. I only wear very little make-up because I think it's superficial and makes people look like plastic.


End file.
